SQL Server Management Studio and...IE8?

This definitely ranks high on the the WTF scale. Since Microsoft released IE8, I thought it would be a good idea to install it so I could make sure everything looks alright in it. So, I installed it. Sounds like a simple story.

But wait, what is this? SQL Server Management Studio has now stopped working. What's the problem? It was very difficult to find out, but it looks like it had something to do with installing IE8. Yeah. Go figure.

Here's the error I was getting:

Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject' to 
interface type 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.OLE.Interop.IServiceProvider'. 
This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM 
component for the interface with IID '{6D5140C1-7436-11CE-8034-00AA006009FA}' 
failed due to the following error: No such interface supported 
(Exception from HRESULT: 0x80004002 (E_NOINTERFACE)). 
(Microsoft.VisualStudio.OLE.Interop)

------------------------------
Program Location:

   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.OLE.Interop.IServiceProvider.QueryService(Guid& guidService, Guid& riid, IntPtr& ppvObject)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ServiceProvider.GetService(Guid guid, Type serviceType)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ServiceProvider.GetService(Type serviceType)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ShellWindowPaneUserControl.GetService(Type svcClass)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ObjectExplorer.ObjectExplorer.System.IServiceProvider.GetService(Type serviceType)
   at System.ComponentModel.Design.ServiceContainer.GetService(Type serviceType)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ObjectExplorer.NavigableItem.GetService(Type serviceType)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ObjectExplorer.NodeContext.GetService(Type serviceType)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ObjectExplorer.NavigableItemBuilder.BuildDynamicItemWithQuery(IList nodes, INodeInformation source, INavigableItem sourceItem, String urnQuery, Boolean registerBuilder, Boolean registerBuiltItems)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ObjectExplorer.NavigableItemBuilder.BuildDynamicItem(IList nodes, INodeInformation source, INavigableItem sourceItem, IFilterProvider filter)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ObjectExplorer.NavigableItemBuilder.Build(INodeInformation source, INavigableItem sourceItem, IFilterProvider filter)
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ObjectExplorer.NavigableItem.GetChildren()
   at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.UI.VSIntegration.ObjectExplorer.ExplorerHierarchyNode.BuildChildren()

That's a whole lot of crap for telling me nothing. Just so it's clear what I'm running, I use Windows Vista 64-bit. This actually makes a difference in the end solution. Anyways, here's the quick and dirty solution. It sounds weird, just try and it see if it works for you.

• Open a command-prompt (Run as administrator)


• Navigate to C:\Windows\SysWOW64\


• Run the following command: regsvr32 actxprxy.dll


• Restart SQL Management Studio and try again

I saw other solutions very similar to this, but my guess for why they didn't work is that I was going to the C:\Windows\System32\ folder instead of C:\Windows\SysWOW64\ folder. It makes a difference. If you are on a 32 bit machine, try the other folder and run the same command. Happy hunting. Oh, thanks a lot Microsoft.